20 Films you shouldn’t miss at the 18th Jecheon International Music & Film Festival (Part 1)

By Asian Film Festival on July 26, 2022 • ( 2 Comments )

These are twenty feature films you shouldn’t miss at the 18th Jecheon International Music & Film Festival, which will take place from August 11 – 16, 2022 in the city of Jecheon, South Korea.

– Selected Feature Films – (Part 1)

**A Bird Flies Away** by Kim Hyo-kyung – Korea | 2022 – 20 minutes
**Section**: Made in Jecheon | World Premiere

Jeong-yeon turns 55 this year and her daughter Hae-gyeong is about to move out. Her husband commutes from somewhere else and her son Hae-chan is already independent and successful. Her daughter was able to secure a job and will soon move to Seoul. Jeong-yeon will be completely alone once her daughter is gone, and she falls into an incomprehensible emotional state. (JIMFF 2022)

Trailer:

**Decision to Leave** by Park Chan-wook – Korea | 2022 – 138 minutes
**Section**: Curator of the Year

Haejun is a detective, investigating the death of a man who fell from the top of a mountain. He encounters Seorae, the wife of the dead man and notices that she appears quite detached despite the distressing news. The police find it unusual and grow more suspicious of her. As the questioning starts, Haejun slowly finds himself drawn to the mysterious widow. (JIMFF 2022)

Screening:
August 14, 2022 | Sunday | Megabox Jecheon 1 | 13:30 pm

Trailer:

**Diva Janus** by Jo Eunsung – Korea | 2022 – 85 minutes
**Section**: Official Korean Competition | World Premiere

The late Park Sung-yeon, the Korea’s first full-fledged jazz singer ran Club Janus which is the first jazz club created by Koreans, for more than 40 years. Currently Club Janus has changed its name to “Diva Janus” and is being operated by Malo, a second-generation jazz singer. The documentary Diva Janus tells a story that how an individual, Park Sung-yeon became a stepping stone and took root in Korean jazz through her interviews, the songs she sang, and other jazz mutsicians’ interviews. (JIMFF 2022)

Trailer:

**How Have You Been** by Lee Eunjeong – Korea | 2022 – 90 minutes
**Section**: Official Korean Competition | World Premiere

YeonKyeong, a 33-year-old woman decides to give up on her music after failing multiple auditions. She has been pursuing her dream of becoming a singer from the day she performed in a radio competition but she can’t go on anymore. One day, YeonKyeong receives a letter and a guitar from Hyunsoo, her high school friend she used to make music with. Perplexed by his letter, she embarks on a journey to Wolmi Island to say goodbye to her old dream. (JIMFF 2022)

Trailer:

**Inside a Funeral Hall** by Lee Ho-hyun – Korea | 2022 – 63 minutes
**Section**: Made in Jecheon | World Premiere

Sang-eun who is in the hospital getting treatment for cancer without telling his family hears about his grandmother’s passing and heads for the funeral hall but is disgusted by relatives fighting over the little fortune that she left. He runs into Eun-gyu’s uncle and hears that Eun-gyu’s mother is terminally ill with pancreatic cancer and is in the same hospital he is in. He seeks him out and seeing his mother makes his realize that for someone, death could be fierce desperation beyond sadness. (JIMFF 2022)

Trailer:

**Lady Shaman** by Choi Jayoung – Korea | 2022 – 86 minutes
**Section**: Official Korean Competition | World Premiere

Lee Sun-ho, the folklorist studying shamanism, is trying to get a faculty position at one of the universities in Seoul. After his third rejection from the universities, he leaves for Jeju Island to look for a new subject for his research. In Jeju, he meets Ahn Hae-ri, a young and beautiful lady shaman who is as highly respected as the national intangible cultural asset. To study Hae-ri’s rituals, Sun-ho becomes one of her assistants, at Mo Young-ri Shrine and they become close. (JIMFF 2022)

Trailer:

**Make-Believers** by Kenjo McCurtain – Japan | 2021 – 101 minutes
**Section**: Dynamics Feature | Korean Premiere

In this whimsical romantic musical, Masa hires an actress and aspiring dancer, Kanako, to pose as his fiancée to impress his estranged, ailing father. But as his father’s death delays, Masa has to navigate the spiraling web of lies and learn to follow his heart. (JIMFF 2022)

Trailer:

**Missing Yoon** by Kim Jinhwa – Korea | 2021 – 108 minutes
**Section**: Dynamic Feature

Attention seeker Youtuber Jang Ha-da is trying to get popular again, so she even sells her privacy. One day, a legendary singer Yoon Si-nae is disappeared. So Jang uses her mother, an imitation singer Yeon Si-nae, as a live broadcasting material and gets enthusiastic responses from subscribers. Meanwhile, Yeon Si-nae who is despairing after losing the dream stage decides to leave in search of Yoon Si-nae with fellow imitation singer Un Si-nae. And Jang sets up a live broadcast without them knowing. (JIMFF 2022)

Screening:
August 12, 2022 | Friday | CGV Jecheon 2 | 20:00 pm (With Q&A)

Trailer:

**My Name Is Zolzaya** by Kwak Dongchui – Korea | 2021 – 60 minutes
**Section**: Dynamic Feature

Damba Zolzaya, the first Koohmei singer in her birthplace, Khovd aimag, and the winner of the 2018 World Khoomei Contest, is enjoying the happiest time in her life as she receives attention from the public and the media. For the first time in a while, Zolzaya visits her hometown of Chandmani to shoot the cover photo for her first Khoomei album. However, happiness is not her only feeling as she prepares to visit her hometown. (JIMFF 2022)

Screening:
August 12, 2022 | Friday | CGV Jecheon 2 | 17:00 pm (With Q&A)

Trailer:

**Near and Dear** by Maria Álvarez – Argentina | 2021 – 81 minutes
**Section**: Dynamic Feature | Asian Premiere

In a small apartment in Buenos Aires, crammed with memories and invaded by a huge grand piano, the 91-year-old Cavallini twin sisters go through the days between the love and hate of their peculiar symbiotic bond. There, they reminisce over their days as a professional piano duo and something seems to light up in their eyes. The music returns with all the strength of the past. (JIMFF 2022)

Trailer: